He knew what usually happened when a city was sacked. There would be fires lit and revelry from the troops, wine would flow and the men would take their due. The wine was sour in his mouth now, and he could hear, as if from a distance, the sound of screaming. Taking a deep, steadying breath and another drink of wine he looked up at Finne. There was that look of polite interest again and he didn't know what to make of the feeling that came to him. Guilt? Was he supposed to apologize? For what, he didn't personally go to Imruk and burn it down. He hadn't been a soldier in Alyssa's armies for years. Not since... he took another drink of wine and then regretted his decision. One should never drink on an empty stomach so he reached for the food on the table.

The meat and fowl were leftovers from their wedding party, but the bread was freshly baked. Finne was breaking off the bread pieces and dipping them in the sauce, daintily and practiced, like one of the well bred aristocratic girls living in the summer villas around Galer's— now Aleci's villa. For the first time, Aleci wished he had the words to ask Finne if he was a willing participant in this farcical marriage. But then he remembered how much Finne had fawned over his father, and how Galer similarly had smiled, and his mood soured.

It didn't improve when they had finished eating and he walked with Finne towards their shared bedroom. Finne visibly swallowed before walking towards the bed without a glance at Aleci. He began pulling off the palla, tossing it to the floor before pulling off his stola. Finne was being dutiful and Aleci should do right by him. Or he could storm out again, or feign sleep but there was a nagging thought that came to him of the look Galer gave Finne before he left and told Aleci in no uncertain terms that Aleci had a deadline. The consequences were left in the air, but it was one thing to have Galer's ire directed at him but it was another to have Finne involved. Especially if Finne had no other option besides the marriage. Aleci sighed deeply, and made to undress himself.

He wasn't unfamiliar with a Mytus's biology, he'd fucked carriers before at the lupanar. Emos was one of them, though most hetairikos were men. mytusi, in Alyssa were either a prized trophy to be won or the concubines of the wealthy men. Emos had been the rare Mytus that made his own way in life. He had enjoyed entertaining men, the same as all the other hetairikos who Aleci had paid coin to spend a night with.

Finne was near silent throughout the entire act, his face was unreadable in the candlelight. Though Aleci suspected that even if he lit all the candles in the villa he wouldn't be able to make out what Finne was thinking. The only sound he made was a gasp when Aleci's oiled fingers entered him, and again when Aleci replaced them with his cock. It was unnerving to say the least, fucking into the pliant and silent form underneath him. Finne was a puppet and Aleci the puppeteer and as the thought occurred to him he had to stop because that particular line of thought never went anywhere. So he returned to the present, and that was Finne lying compliant and docile. He couldn't even hurry it up either, there was no encouraging moans of pleasure or heels digging into his back. For the first time he was more than relieved to finish. He rolled off Finne, reaching for a washcloth. He offered one to Finne who took it with another blank expression.

Aleci half wondered if the man was part marble. Or was it in Imruk that one was supposed to act this way? Well, Finne did make an attempt and he'd rejected them but it wasn't him that set the whole wagon in motion. He was feeling apologetic, but why should he? Finne was his wife, and until his father got the grandchild he wanted, they wouldn't have the peace to do anything else. He did have his money yes, he had plenty of coin but Galer had the power to force the hand of the argentarii to not give it to him. As much as the argentarii loved their coins and numbers they knew who to bow down to and that was Galer and the shadow council he clearly headed.

Oh, his father could deny until he was blue in the face that he was in any secretive society but Aleci knew. Galer could lie, but not to his wife, because if there was anything he knew for certain that Galer hated it was philandery. Even if that was not a trait that the men around him held in high regard, it was what Galer held dear. And his mother returned it in kind. She had never rejected his father's affection. But she told him herself that she was allowed to chose his father as a suitor over all others so maybe that made the difference?

The thought of laying with an unresponsive partner for the rest of his life filled him with apprehension and dread. He wasn't sure what Finne thought of the matter either, all he could tell from his uneven breaths that he wasn't asleep. If Finne was one of his bed-partners, he'd pulled him closer, but he suspected that might be strongly unwelcomed. At the very least he could retreat to the study tomorrow.

Which was what he did the next day, telling the woman from yesterday to bring Finne his breakfast as he passed her. She raised an eyebrow at that but curtseyed, and he hoped, would at least keep Finne company. Then he lost himself in the numbers, because there were many of them, all piled up on his father's desk. They were by month, he could tell, because Galer knew the virtues of being organized, but he didn't know how to do numbers as well as Aleci, and that was clear when Aleci saw the first of what looked like many mistakes.

At noon he got up from his chair, wincing at the sore muscles. He made his way to the courtyard tripping over a blur of black that brushed pass his legs. Rubbing at his knees, he stared into one angry yellow eye.

"You don't die do you?" he said, to the villa's long lived tom cat.

The cat gave him a meow of distaste, twitching his tail irritably in the air before clambering up a pillar and darting away. If the cats hadn't kept the population of vermin around the vineyard and villa under control his father would have gotten rid of them years ago, irritable creatures. The tom was the worst of the lot, Aleci vividly remembers his claws breaking skin when his younger self had the generosity to offer him food. The black cat had both of his eyes then, and the soft fur of a kitten, but his foul temper had never changed. The tom seemed to take a passionate dislike to him ever since that day. Every summer that he came to the villa, it was still there, seeming to live on pure spite and to steal food off his plate specifically, delighting his younger sister when it did.

The next few days found him nearly out of his mind with boredom. His father kept a bare bones record of the family properties, which he was grateful for, but and there was only so many things Aleci could fix one season before there was nothing more for him to do until the next. The nights were spent in the same awkward and tense manner. Aleci had half the mind to fetch another wax tablet and attempt a conversation but the chagrin from the previous one kept him from that idea.

He didn't tell Finne what to do, certainly he didn't forbid his wife from leaving their bedroom. The trouper woman, when pressed, said that she went with him around the vineyard. She didn't say much beside that, and Aleci gave up questioning her. Finne was back in the bedroom at night and that was the only thing that was required.

After the first week of being locked in doors he threw down his pen and stalked off towards the bedroom. He was going off riding, and Finne was going with him. That was not against the rules now was it? The doors to the bedroom was slightly open and he made to knock, before he heard Finne's voice.

«Aren't you a handsome one. Here, cat.»

It the first time he heard Finne sound relaxed, maybe even genuinely happy, not the formal stiffness when he spoke with Galer and Cimul. He peered in to see Finne crouching on the balcony, one hand extended towards the one eyed cat, the other running one finger down the length of the cat's back. The animal was eating something from Finne's hand, before pulling away and, to Aleci's horror, began rubbing his back against Finne's legs. It was purring coming from the beast, if his ears weren't deceiving him.

"Finne?" he said, deciding to announce his presence.

The cat hissed when he stepped through the door, jumping on the banister and disappearing in a blur of black fur. There was an irritated look on Finne's face for a brief moment before it smoothed over into a polite smile.

"Aleci," he acknowledged.

Aleci walked over to the small bedside table to fetch the wax tablet. Drawing what he hoped was a saddled horse, he offered it to Finne.

"Would you like to go.. Riding?" he said, indicating towards the tablet.

Finne stared at the picture with a frown, turning it from side to side as if trying to decipher what the drawing represented. Aleci sighed deeply. "Come with me?" he said, hoping the inflection in his voice sounded like a suggestion and not a command.

He extended a hand towards Finne. The other man took it, after some hesitation, tablet still clutched in one hand, and Aleci lead him towards the stables.

Finne seemed to understand as they approached and the sounds of horses could be heard. "Riding." he said brightly.

Aleci chuckled, "No—" he paused at Finne's confused frown, and indicated to the horse, "horse." He motioned for the tablet in Finne's hand and pointed to the drawn horse, then the horse in front of him. "Horse."

This caused a burst of uncontrollable laughter from Finne. "Horse?" he repeated, in disbelief, glancing at the tablet drawing then at the animal in front of them, "Horse?"

"Yes, yes, I am a brilliant artist," Aleci muttered, vaguely relieved that Finne was capable of laughing, and Finne laughed harder at that, if his ears didn't deceive him.

Aleci moved towards the saddles, picking one up and walking towards the first horse. From the corner of his eye he saw Finne drawing something on the tablet. Fixing his drawing more like it. He was still at it when Aleci finished saddling the two horses.

"Riding?" said Finne, offering the table up to Aleci.

It was a significantly better drawing than Aleci's, depicting a man riding a horse. To the side, scowling, was Galer. A very accurate depiction of Galer, Finne somehow managed to capture all of his grimness and the eyebrows were especially perfect. Aleci bit back a laugh.

"Riding." he agreed, motioning for Finne to follow him with the horses outside.

Finne's horse was an older gelding, too old to run any faster than a trot. He reached out help Finne up on his saddle, like his father had on the ride here but Finne had already swung himself up, gently patting the gelding's neck. Aleci blinked, then shrugged. So Finne traveled here on a horse, there must have been times Galer couldn't give him a hand.

He decided to take them to where the olive trees grew. It was on one of the few hills on the property, and the sandy ground around it would at least provide a big canvas. They tied their horses to the trunk of an olive tree and sat down. Aleci reached for a stick and cleared the dirt around them. When that was done, he drew a cat onto the ground, adding its pointy ears and whiskers. After some consideration, he decided to scratch out one eye.

"Cat," he said, then gestured towards Finne, "What is it in Imrukian?"

Finne looked amused at the drawing. «Cat,» he said.

The word sounded foreign on his tongue when he repeated it back, though he wasn't sure if that was what Finne called the cat or if that was the word for a cat Imrukian. He drew the horse again, then a figure riding it.

"I like riding," he said, pointing to himself, and then the picture. "I like-" he paused, gesturing towards Finne to do the same.

Finne paused, staring at the drawing and then Aleci, before drawing on the sand. It was a figure reading a scroll.

"I like «reading»," said Finne.

"«Reding,»" repeated Aleci, and Finne shook his head, "«Rading»"

«Reading,» said Finne, and he had that smile on his face that made him look so much more human than before.

"I like reading," said Aleci distracted, giving up and offering the verb.

"I like reading," Finne repeated, effortlessly.

Finne picked up the tongue, or at least the pronunciation, faster than he did, to his embarrassment. Perhaps he had experience, or learned a different tongue before? He wasn't sure if he could communicate that question through pictures. They traded pictures back and forth until sunset, during which Aleci understood that Finne liked reading, cats, and pomegranates. The latter prompted an entire series of drawings, which consisted more of Aleci watching Finne than him drawing, as his fruits were indistinguishable from each other. In any case, Finne looked more relaxed when they rode back a soft smile on his face. He looked handsome, Aleci thought, watching Finne from the corner of his eye as they ate dinner. Perhaps... perhaps they could make this work.

But a part of Aleci dreaded the night, and like the other nights, Finne was stiff and unmoving under him. Even when Aleci ran his hand down his Finne's back, gently nibbling at his nipples with his mouth, Finne was unresponsive. Aleci resigned himself after that, deciding to just finish the whole sorry affair. It was different when Aleci handed Finne the washcloth though, Finne paused, grabbing his hand to pull him down in an unexpected strong grasp. There was a deep uncertainty in his eyes before Finne pulled Aleci towards him, gently pressing a kiss on his lips.